Shape Your Brand Vision at the Outset…Or Your Customers Will Do It For You

The process, timing, and vantage point for brand communication platform development has to be revamped . . . and quickly. Scientific data dissemination and internalization by our customers, particularly patients, is moving at light speed.

Professional meetings like ASCO, the annual gathering of clinical oncologists, were once strictly the concern of specialists in the field – scientists, academics, and pharma industry personnel. Brand perceptions could be carefully shaped over time with information trickled out in a controlled fashion. Those days are over. Now, the vast reach of online communication and social media means that results from a Saturday afternoon poster session at ASCO can appear Sunday morning on the blog of a cancer survivor who attended the conference (see http://bit.ly/bWjh8W).

Today’s marketer needs to begin proactively shaping the perceptions of their Brand from the outset of data dissemination. At ROF, we call this Brand Visioning – others call it pre-positioning. Regardless of the name, it’s imperative for marketers to begin actively shaping brand perceptions through a well-crafted communication platform with a distinct hierarchy in advance of launch.

Because the truth is, if you don’t do it your customers will.